What Is Truth? A Holy Week Reflection on Government Deceit – And Moral Courage

Commentary and opinion from Contributing Author Chuck Small

As I read The Washington Post this past Saturday morning, I couldn’t help but think of a key exchange in the passion of Jesus.

(The fact that I’m observing Holy Week this week undoubtedly influenced my thinking.)

In the Gospel of John’s account of the Passion, there’s an extensive conversation between Roman official Pontius Pilate, Jesus, and the religious leaders. Pilate says to Jesus, “Then you are a king?”

Jesus replies, “You say I am a king.”

“For this I was born and for this I came into the world: to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

Pilate, in reply, says, “What is truth?”

He then goes out to the religious leaders and says he finds no guilt in Jesus. Ultimately, after a substantial back-and-forth – and despite his own determination about Jesus’ innocence – he hands Jesus off to be crucified.

This essential part of the Passion always leaves me feeling unsettled.

In part, because Pilate allows a community’s intensity to overwhelm his own intuition, sending an innocent man to die.

But also, because Pilate’s asking, “What is truth?” doesn’t strike me as a genuine question of discernment. Instead, it’s a cynical, relative statement: essentially, “Who cares what truth is?” Because someone genuinely interested in the truth wouldn’t make a decision that has so little regard for it.

And that’s where we are right now in America.

The Post reported on Saturday that our government, under the direction of the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency:

… Ordered 6,100 names and Social Security numbers of living people to be added to the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File.

As the Post noted:

• “Experts in government, consumer rights and immigration law said the administration’s action is illegal. Labeling people dead strips them of the privacy protections granted to living individuals — and knowingly classifying living people as dead counts as falsifying government records.”

The response of our government? According to the Post, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said:

“The Trump Administration is protecting lawful American citizens and their hard-earned Social Security benefits, and ensuring illegal immigrants will no longer receive such economic entitlements. Anyone who disagrees with the common-sense policies of this administration can find a new job.”

With such an attitude toward the nation that she and her boss serve, perhaps Leavitt should consider a new job.

Yet Leavitt’s response serves as a useful reality check. It’s as cynical and relative as Pilate’s “What is truth?”

I’m not naïve. I know American history is replete with instances of the government ignoring truth or manipulating it to achieve the ends it seeks:

• The Dred Scott decision

• Jim Crow laws

• The internment of Japanese Americans during World War II – to name a few.

Even today, the government is ignoring both science and lived experience to falsely depict gender identity and assault the rights of trans and nonbinary people.

I’ve spent my professional life explaining and exploring the truth of everyday life. I can’t countenance my government intentionally lying about whether an individual is dead. With apologies to Spandau Ballet, I know this much is true.

Pilate allowed a crowd to sway him from following his instincts.

If I keep quiet as my government cynically decides it’s acceptable to lie about human beings to accomplish what it considers acceptable, I become Pilate. 

This week, I’ll reach out:

• To senators
• To representatives
• And to the White House to protest this gross violation of the truth.

To do anything less would not just be shrugging off my duty, a la Pilate.

It would make a mockery out of any commemoration of this week of life, death and resurrection.

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